Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead

Tom Stoppard had to go to Yugoslavia to film his celebrated stage play, which takes the two minor characters from Hamlet and shows the events at Elsinore from their imperfect viewpoint.

For a first-time director, he makes a first-rate job of it. He trusts the words and leaves it to the cast to provide the inflections and the pacing that give spring and speed to a movie whose intellectual fizz is a joy to experience.

The trip to the Balkans has also resulted in some very stylish visuals that probably have acquired a rarity value since the recent events there chipped away - when they did not actually flatten - the buildings that provide the Shakespearean-style design of the production.